Queen Rules At Riccarton

3 October 2012

Emerald Queen became the latest black-type winner for champion sire O’Reilly with her runaway victory in the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes. At just her second appearance, the Shane Kennedy and Anna Furlong-trained filly romped clear in the closing stages to strike first blood in the NZ Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year series.

Fifth on debut at her only other appearance, Emerald Queen is raced by Kevin Hickman, who on Friday night was named the breeder and owner of the year at the South Island Racing Awards. Winning Spree was also honoured as the broodmare of the Year as the dam of Hickman’s outstanding Gr 1 New Zeland Derby winner Silent Achiever – who is also be O’Reilly.

O’Reilly was also on the board on premier day at Hastings where Brave Centaur upset his Rating 65 sprint rivals. Trained by Lance Noble, he is out of the unraced Centaine mare Centaurea and from the family of the stakeswinner and Gr 1 Telegraph Handicap runner-up Tootsie (Pins).

Savabeel, from furthering a legacy to creating his own – The Straight

A true Australasian success story on the track and in the breeding shed, the influence of Savabeel, who died last week aged 24, will be felt for years to come on both sides of the …

23 June 2026

Sav’s final resting place

“I’ve got a couple of very special bottles of wine that I’ve had for a number of years, and usually they would have been opened on a celebration, but I thought it was very pertinent, and well, it was a celebration, it was a celebration of his life,” Mark Chittick told The Straight.